More TIFF Capsule Reviews

TIFF Capsule Reviews (Volume 2)

http://www.cinemaeye.com/index/movienews/more/tiff_capsule_reviews_updated/

Together with the link above, the complete set of capsule reviews:

ARMADILLO (Denmark 2010) ***
Directed by Janus Metz

ARMADILLO, winner of the Cannes Critics Week prize is very similar in theme to the recent American RESTREPO where an entire mission of a group of soldiers is recorded on camera in Afghanistan.  In ARMADILLO 9the name of the camp base), Danish trioups del with the danger of fighting and death while coping with each othe and the memory of their loved ones left behind in Denmark.  Director Metz gets his audience to relate to his characters and feel for them by documenting their daily routine during the mission.  Metz brings his film to a satisfying finish with the troupe returning home to a grand welcome back at the airport.  But one problem of the film is the question of how the camera manages to record all the dangerous battle scenes in the movie as the film is supposed to be a documentary. 

BALADA TRISTE (THE LAST CIRCUS) (Spain/Fr 2010) **
Directed by Alex de la Iglesia

One can expect the wildest from Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia who made PERDITO DURANGO, PERFECT CRIME, DAY OF THE BEAST, among others.  Álex de la Iglesia’s latest feature, Balada Triste (The Last Circus), is a wild and hilarious film that exposes the nature of political conflicts in his country’s recent history. The film begins in 1937, as circus workers are forced to aid the Republican army in a battle against the National front. The Silly Clown (Santiago Segura), dressed in full costume, manages to wreak havoc on their ranks with a machete. When his young son Javier (Carlos Areces) attempts to help him escape from a work camp, Colonel Salcedo (Sancho Gracia) thwarts his efforts and Javier is left an orphan.  That is quite the beginning but once the film shifts to 1973,
when Javier, now an adult, landing a gig as the sad clown in a circus, things start to fall apart, just as his love for the girlfriend of a silly clown. The silly clown, Sergio (Antonio de la Torre), is a cruel thug who terrorizes his co-workers and beats his girlfriend, the beguiling dancer Natalia (Carolina Bang).  According to press notes, Iglesia made this film to exorcise his early demons, but his film is quite confusing for the fact that Javier’s character changes from hero to violent to unstable.  Thee is still lots of dark humour in this tragicomedy, but that is it.

BARNEY”S VERSION (Canada/Italy 2010) **
Directed by Richard J. Lewis

BARNEY”S VERSION has a lot going for it.  It stars Paul Giamatti, one of today’s finest actors, is based on famed writer Mordecai Richler’s characters and produced by Canadian champion Robert Lantos.  The story concerns one Barney Panofksy (Giamatti), an impulsive, blunt, emotional and philandering creature who goes through three wives (Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver and Rosamund Pike) before losing his mind to Alzheimer’s.  His father (Dustin Hoffman) of equally volatile nature, stands by him all the way.  The disappearance/murder of Barney’s best friend (Scott Speedman) of which Barney becomes the prime subject is a subplot that rears its head again at the end of the film.  BARNEY’S VERSION is beautifully shot and well acted but there are problems.  The major one is Giamatti playing the lead, a character able to charm three ladies to wed him and another gorgeous blonde to pick up.  Given the actor credit for trying his best, it is hard to believe that women fall for his physical charactristics.  Even if this premise occurs, the script by Michael Konyves gives Barney no redeeming features. He cheats on each wife, never keeps his promises or supports their work and gets drunk ever so often watching hockey matches.  The only time the film gains credibility is when his son calls him a ***censored***.  The Barney character is analogous to Lewis making a foul feature and believing the audience will love it.

BLESSED EVENTS (Germany 2010) **
Directed by Isabelle Stever

Waking up drunk in the early hours of the morning discovering that you had sex with the man next to you and then later discovering a pregnancy can hardly be deemed BLESSED EVENTS.  But in director’s Stever’s world it is. Simone (Annika Kuhl) runs into the father again in the hospital where she’s having an ultrasound. To her surprise, Hannes (Stefan Rudolf), is thrilled that she’s pregnant and wants to start a real relationship with her.
Everything works well after.  He loves her, cooks or her, suppots her and is even has sex with her to satisfy her.  As if this is not enough, she is still doubtful.  The film marks time and never takes off from this point.  Simone’s character becomes terribly annoying, not to say boring.  Stever does not offer Hanne’s point of view for the matter either.  This is one woman’s film with basically one point of view.  If there is any message in this film, it might be to go out, get laid in order to live the good life.

THE CALL (LA LLAMADA) (Italy/Argentina 2010) **
Directed by Stefano Pasetto

What does one do when stuck in a rut?  Two women of opposite characters, Lea (Francesca Inaudi) and Lucia (Sandra Ceccarelli) take off from Buenos Aires for Patagonia, THELMA AND LOUISE style.  Director Pasetto covers the before during and consequences of the actions.  The problem is the film’s pace, which is slow and lacks the punch that drives the women to alter their lives.  The attraction of both women is strong as they are totally different, one a free spirit and one bound to tradition and social behaviour.  But the lesbian scene between the two, though erotic is not really a necessary element to the plot, made more unbelievable as the two have men in their lives.  The shots of Patagonia are stunning, Pasetto’s camera capturing both the waste and beauty of the place, echoing the conflicting nature of the two leads.

THE HOUSEMAID (South Korea 2010) ***1/2
Directed by Im Sang-soo

THE HOUSEMAID plays so much like a horror thriller that one could hear a pin drop.  The new maid, Eun-yi (Jeon Do-youn) is bullied by the house mistress Mrs. Cho, poisoned by the missus (Seo Woo) and made pregnant by the master (Lee Jung-jae) of the household.  She is expected to abort the baby but refuses.  This is a story involving various complexities such as male dominance, coming-of-age, revenge, redemption.  Im’s film (a remake of his original 60’s version) is thus rich in intrigue and full of psychological suspense.  The HOUSEMAID who just sits there being slapped by the missus when finally decides to take revenge on the family, I am sure exacts silent cheers form the audience.  It is a question of how much one can take before taking control.  The surreal ending suits Im’s film which is also stunningly shot.

HOW TO START YOUR OWN COUNTRY (Canada 2010) **
Directed by Jody Shapiro

The doc HOW TO START YOUR OWN COUNTRY examines four such micro-nations as director Shapiro (DO YOU LOVE ME?) puts it – Molossia (situated in Nevada), Serbogam (Italy), Sealand 9the U.K.) and Hutt River (Australia).  Shapiro interviews the founders who usually establish themselves in their own country as king, important ruler or rather chief oddball.  He poses the question of what it takes for a country to be recognized as one, but does not really delve seriously into the matter.  He takes what these micro-nations founders say as the truth.  The film is interesting enough, primarily because of the oddness of his subject and the eccentricity of the micro-nations’ inhabitants.  But the material is too sparse to make up 90 minutes of film and steam also runs out pretty fast on the interest of the subject.

I’M STILL HERE (USA 2010) ***
Directed by Casey Affleck

In 2008, Oscar nominated actor Joaquin Phoenix announced to the world that he would give up acting.  But as I’M STILL HERE proves, Phoenix is still around, and iof not creating a ruckus in one form or other, attracting attention in more ways than he would if he retired.  Brother-in-law Casey Affleck films Phoenix as he talks out his inner demons, screams and shouts at the camera and most interesting make a genuine go and rap.  In one scene, he woos P. Diddy to produce one album.  In one of the film’s most outrageous scenes, Phoenix performs a live rap, so horrible that he curses and attacks one of his hecklers.  Affleck’s film is as much alive as his subject is, and it hardly feels like a documentary.  Acting is perfect as who can play Phoenix better than the man himself?  Affleck, himself appears in the film, as do quite a few celebrities including Mos Def and Edward James Olmos who tries to help him.  But one wonders how much of the film has been watered down or spiced up, since Phoenix is credited as one of the script writers for this film.

INSIDE JOB (USA 2010) ****
Directed by Craig Ferguson

In this impressively researched documentary laid out in 5 parts, documentarian Craig Ferguson takes on the 2008 economic crisis.  The Iceland economic blunder is examined and laid out efficiently in the first 10 minutes of the film before the starting credits roll out and the U.S. economy scrutinized.  With the other 100 minutes of film, what is expected and delivered is a very detailed and precise examination of what went wrong, who is responsible, where the worlds is currently at, at the present.  Ferguson paints a bleak look with no cure in sight and a very angry film in which he details how each high profiled person responsible for the catastrophe has benefited financially in dollar terms.  His list of interviewees is very impressive, down to even the Prime Minister of Singapore saying his tow bits worth that no country (especially a small one like Singapore) can hide under a blanket when global recession has hit.  INSIDE JOB sounds like a film about a bank heist but the results of this inside job reaches the most catastrophic proportions.  With some wicket humour tied in INSIDE JOB is an excellent financial history lesson.

IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY (USA 2009) **
Directed by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden

Just like the film’s premise and the feel of the film at its start quirkiness is the order of the day.  Craig checks in a mental hospital and tells the clerk that he wants to kill himself, after which he is asked to fill in certain forms.  The story concerns this confused teen (Keir Gilchrist) as he spends 5 days in the institution (Sunday to Wednesda) only to discover that he is ok and that he can look forward to living life again.  In the process, he helps others in the institute, particularly Bobby (Zach Galifianakis) and finds a little romance with Nicole (Emma Roberts).  It is a sweet little story which audiences have seen before in one form or other with hardly a spot of unpredictability.  But the quirkiness that evoked quite a few laugh-out loud moments in the beginning slowly loses momentum and the film drags on for quite a while in the middle.  It does not help that Craig’s parents are rather dull and are too supportive.  The film ends up as satisfying entertainment in a funny sort of a way.

JULIA’S EYES (Spain 2010) ****
Directed by Guillem Morales

JULIA’S EYES has the stamp of Guillermo del Toro and for a good reason.  Director.  Like his other prodigy project THE ORPHANAGE, JULIA’S EYES is quite the original horror thriller with a female heroine stalked by a killer but with neat twists.  Belen Rueda plays agirl losing her sight.  An operation will save her eyes but not before her sister and husband are murdered.  It turns out that her neighbour’s kid has seen all and reveals the killer to her, Dario Argento’s style. (The killer is in her apartment without her knowing his identity.).  What follows are enough chills and thrills that will keep the average audience at the edge of their seats.  (As in any movie of this type, there are always laughs coming from a few.) But I find the scares genuinely scary, especially when the victim who ahs gained her sight back, pretends to the killer that she is still blind.  There is one extremely graphic scene reminiscent of an identical one in Del Toro’s PAN’S LABYRINTH.

KARLA AND JONAS (Denmark 2009) **
Directed by Charlotte Sachs Bostrup

A children’s film with a story based on the books of Renee Toft Simonsen, the Danish KARLA OG JONAS has the adult theme of the duo searching for Jonas’ birth mother. They take off by train to, without permission, to Arhus, in Jutland (Northern Denmark) to find her.  Nothing much happens in terms of adventure butt rather in the interaction of Karla (Elena Arnt-Jensen) and Jonas (Joshua Marc Berman) with adults and with each other.  Teen romance is also in the air.  An entertaining, too simple little film that sits well in the family film category of SPROCKETS!  At least the director spares her audience of sentimentality which is left out of the happy ending.  The most interesting thing about this movie is how Karla’s mother puts up with her rebellious behaviour.

THE KING’ SPEECH (UK 2010) ****
Directed by Tobe Hooper

Crowned King George VI of England and a.k.a. Bertie (Colin Firth), Bertie has found royalty a pain owing to his inability to deliver speeches, forcing him to work with Australian speed therapist, Lionel (Geoffrey Rush).  An abrasive but beneficial initial encounter forces the two to work together, forming an unlikely bond of friendship and unbreakable bond that also helps Bertie overcome his stammer. David Seidler’s script comes complete with choice quotes and dialogue perfect for interaction of the two leads.  As the title of the film implies, the speech is the centre of the story, neither one of each of the characters.  Hooper keeps his story on track.  Hooper remembers that it is the little details, like the tear in the wife’s (Helena Bonham Carter) eye after a crucial speech that make a good film like the diction that makes a good speech delivery.  And what a splendid period film this is, aided by Oscar worthy performances by both Rush and Firth.

LAST NIGHT (USA/France 2010) *
Directed by Massy Tadjedin

The theme of writer/director Massy Tadjedin is infidelity.  A happily married couple, Michael (Sam Worthington) and Joanna Reed (Kiera Knightley) is put to the test when Michael travels abroad on a business trip with his new sexy colleague (Eve Mendes) while Joanna meets up with an old flame (Guillaume Canet).  Tadjedin teases the audience with which one will (or will not) commit the act of adultery.  Actress Knightley is terribly annoying with her facial expressions and Worthington is as wooden as wood can be.  Who really cares whether the couple stay faithful to each other or not?  Then Tadjedin questions which is worse?  Meaningless sex or no sex and a meaningful kiss?  The result is an extremely boring pretentious exercise about good looking wealthy people that most audiences cannot relate to or care about.

THE LIGHT THIEF (Kyrgyzstan/Germ/France/Neth 2010) ***
Directed by Aktan Arym Kubat

Director Aktan plays the title role of THE LIGHT THIEF, his new film of the same name where documentary and fiction mixes well in his message-laden tale.  Mr. Light, as he is called, is an electrician with a good heart employed by the government. He steals electricity for the poor and spreads love, loyalty and light to the village.  But the village is poor and since recent years, has been in a devastated state.  The local politician Bekzat (Askat Sulaimanov) appears sincere but has tricks up his sleeve.  Aktan shoots his film in natural light and captures the spirit and devastation of the land.  His detest of people selling the land for personal gain is reflected in the belly dancer who sells her body to the Chinese for personal gain.  The film lacks an ending, so Aktan has his hero beaten up and dragged by horses to infuriate the guilty and perhaps others who might do a thing or two for his country.

MAMMA GOGO (Iceland 2010) **
Directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson

MAMMA GOGO (Kristbjörg Kjeld) tells the story of what happens when the lead character, suffering from Alzheimer’s goes through with her favourite son, a filmmaker (Hilmir Snær Guðnason).  Definitely personalized as the film is based on Fridriksson’s own mother, MAMMA GOGO is an over-sentimentalized film with lots of shots of the younger Gogo (taken from actress Kjeld’s early films) taken with her ex-husband, who appears throughout the film offering advice and complaint to her.  These shots must affect the elderly women in the audience, especially those who have themselves lost their loved ones, as leaving the auditorium after the screening, I noticed quite a few elderly women still unable to hold their tears in.  But the need for a happy ending involving a company’s discovery for a real cure for Alzhermer’s is hardly credible and feels like a cop-out.  Kjeld’s performance is most heart wrenching and the film does cover the problem of what happens to the elderly, especially those close to us.

THE MAN OF A THOUSAND SONGS (Canada 2010) ***
Directed by William D. MacGillivray

Newfoundland director William D. MacGillivray (LIFE CLASSES) takes on the life and intimate portrait of his own province’s singer, the legendary Ron Hynes.  The start of the film has Hynes speaking to the camera describing the three different Hynes that reside within him.  The most evil ‘devil’s one is not seen till almost the end of this often wrenching documentary made even more vivid for the fact that Hynes narrate most of the film.  Though the audience is never shown the actual scenes of his cocaine excesses, his relating of his ordeal is terrifying enough.  But what is most entertaining about this doc is the rendering of Hynes’ songs as seen in his performances with his audience cheering and singling along.  MacGillivary’s doc captures both the highs (including his recovery from the drug addiction) and lows of the legend’s works.  The film is worth a visit even though you may not have heard of Ron Hynes.

NOTRE ETRANGERE (THE PLACE WITHIN) (France/Burkina Faso 2010) **
Directed by Sarah Bouyain

NOTRE ETRANGERE tells two separate stories intercut sharing the theme of adoption.  The first deals with Amy (Dorylia Calmel), born in France, searching fro her birth mother in Burkina Faso. When she visits the home of her aunt Acita (Blandine Yameogo) to try and find out where her mother disappeared to, the welcome is no less distant. Her mother had a secret that shamed the family; Acita is not about to discuss these matters with a foreign girl who might as well be a stranger. Esther (Nathalie Richard) takes lessons in the Dioula language from a Burkinabé woman who also works as a cleaner.  Director Bouyain, herself of mixed race, favours the Africans and is against the rooting of ones race.  But her film lacks the dramatic conviction of her beliefs with the film ending rather abruptly without proper closure.  Strangely enough, her film is most intriguing during in the middle when the audience is figuring what the message/purpose of the film is.

SCORE: A HOCKEY MUSICAL (Canada 2010) *
Directed by Michael McGowan

The opening gala to the Toronto International Film Festival is a sports musical telling the story of a home schooled teenage hockey phenomenon, Farley (Noah Reid).  Discovered by a hockey owner (Stephen McHattie), Noah joins the team but a problem arises in that Noah is unable to handle to fights that are part and parcel of the game.  A romance with Eve (Allie MacDonald) forms a subplot and that is pretty much the whole story behind this film.  Other that that, the film is made up of songs written by McGowan (SAINT RALPH and ONE WEEK) and dances with quite a few on the ice.  McGowan’s previous films were not half bad, but SCORE is totally embarrassing, especially when chosen to open a prestigious a festival as TIFF.  The songs are terrible, dances ridiculous and plot downright silly.  Farley solves the hockey fighting problem by hugging his opponent until they give up.  The result is a film not only so embarrassingly bad but also boring from start to end.  Most sports fans are not into dance movies and vice versa, so expect this film to flop majorly at the box-office.  What were the filmmakers thinking?  The cameos by Olivia Newton John (as Noah’s mother) and Nelly Furtado do not help either.

TAMARA DREWE (UK 2010) ***
Directed by Stephen Frears

Based on Posy Simmond’s popular graphic novel inspired by Thomas Hardy’s FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, TAMARA DREWE plays like a West End bedroom farce on film.  Things come to a boil with the return of Tamara Drewe, the local ugly duckling now a blossomed beauty complete with a nose job.  She gets engaged to a rock drummer (Dominic Cooper much, much better here than in MAMMA MIA!) breaking the hart of handyman, Andy.  Next door is a writer’s retreat, where writers congregate to gather inspiration for writing.  The retreat is owned by Mrs. Hardiment whose husband Nicholas also has a go at Tamara.  Performances are wonderful all around, despite a largely unknown cast and Frears has created another comedy of manners that is very English in look and execution.  Frears loves all his characters even the naughty schoolgirl who gets a happy ending even though she is culprit of all the bad happenings in the film.

TRUST (USA 2010) ***
Directed by David Schwimmer

Director Schwimmer proves his aptness in the thriller/drama genre with a film that compellingly tells the tale of what happens when the darling high school daughter (Liana Liberato) of a loving American family is lured by hr internet ‘sweetheart’ into a motel room and has her virginity compromised.  Father Clive Owens goes crazy while the FBI hunts down the perv.  TRUST works primarily from Schwimmer’s expert pacing that never lets the tension lax but keeps it tighter and more intense as the story unfolds, so much so that the climax is a bit of a let down, unable to match up to the build-up.  Viola Davis is excellent as the girl’s therapist as Owen as the intense British father.  The script never explains this fact.  The side theme (of both the father coming-of-age with his paternal duties and the daughter coming-of-age as a grown up) works well.  TRUST trashes the similar CATFISH (both films opening soon) taking the internet theme of trickery several notches ahead.  The odd cop-put ending revealing the identity of the offender feels out of synch with the rest of the film.